Step 2: Check References in Secondary Sources

If no collected travaux préparatoires is available, try a Secondary Source.

Search for a guide to the travaux préparatoires that you are looking for.

Sometimes, there will be a guide " that tracks the agreement article-by-article, with references to the relevant places in the travaux préparatoires where each article (or the text that preceded it) is discussed" (Pratter 2015).

If you find such a thing, it will save you lots of time, but guides like this are rare.

Alternately, another good type of secondary source to start with would be an "article-by-article commentary on a particular agreement" (Pratter 2015).

Commentaries generally will have references to the travaux préparatoires.

You can use these citations to find the specific documents of interest.

Search all three of the catalogs (WorldCat, Discover Library & Acorn) using as keywords the title of the treaty or agreement (in quotes) and the keywords "travaux préparatoires"

Step 4: Published series of conference records

Search for travaux préparatoires collected under one title.

Sometimes, intergovernmental organizations such as the Hague Conference or UNIDROIT will publish in one seriestravaux préparatoires for all international instruments that these organizations have drafted.

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